Sept. 8 (KLEKTEK)— Qatar tops the Arab states in the annual Web Index, which seeks to evaluate the state of the Web in 61 countries worldwide.

Qatar was followed by Italy, Turkey, Tunisia, Russia, India, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and other states, the report by the World Wide Web Foundation indicated.

At the global level, Qatar ranked 21st and was immediately after Japan, the report said.

The Web Index incorporates indicators that assess the political, economic and social impact of the Web, as well as indicators of Web connectivity and infrastructure.

According to the report, Sweden ranked first and was followed by the US.

The World Wide Web has seen explosive growth since its invention in 1989.
 
With more than a trillion estimated public pages and roughly 3.4 billion users, the Web is no longer merely a place to seek content and information, but to actively connect with friends and peers, debate globally critical issues, collaborate and conduct business, and even create breakthrough innovations, said the report.

However, despite the increasing ease of access, more than 60% of the world’s population do not have access to the Web, and are therefore excluded from directly benefiting from it.